45th Class of '65 High School Reunion and More!!

We have been playing a lot of golf since leaving the Rease family reunion.  If I can brag on Pat's golf game just a little...she has been doing great!  She hit a 150 yard shot into the cup for an eagle, she has hit two chip ins from about 20 yards off the green for birdies on the same 18 hole game, and her drives are always straight and very long!  I think I will start caddying for her on the tour as soon as she gets better at putting - "she hates to putt"!  I guess that is why she is starting to hit them in from off the green.  We have had the pleasure of playing several courses in Ohio and enjoyed playing with George's brothers, old high school friends, and extended family members and even just the two of us!  The weather has cooperated with us here in Ohio, although we do get to the courses very early and beat the heat of the day.

Pat teeing off  Kenton Veterans Memorial Golf Course

Pat and George arriving at the Reunion and Dance

We attended George's 45th high school reunion and renewed friendships with many of his old classmates.  Since we were in town early, George had a chance to visit with many of his high school friends before the reunion and was invited to attend one of the last planning meetings.  You can not image all the hard work and planning that goes into putting on his high school reunion.  They had a dinner on the Thursday, a pig roast on Friday, a golf outing, the  reunion and dance on Saturday and a breakfast on Sunday! 

Pat and several classmates at Sunday Breakfast

The  organizers have been working for months putting this all together and about 140 of his classmates, spouses, former teachers, and friends of the class attended from as far away as Austria, and of course many states.  George said it was one of the best reunions he has attended and his class really knows how to put on a show.  We can't think of any high school reunion that goes all out to welcome their old classmates back and celebrate friendships like his Class of '65.  They said they don't turn back the clock - they rewind the clock!  His class also started a new tradition and voted to have a scholarship fund set up from donations from his class and classmates - they are really some special people.  George's high school classmates epitomize the hard working and generous people of this country, they know how to have fun, enjoy life and give back to their community - we are proud to be a part of this rich tradition!   

George's classmates enjoying the evening!  The young lady at the table is his cousin, Peggy!

Even one of the bartenders got into the spirit of the evening.  He was "conned" into performing a tribal dance for the classmates

Classmates waiting for the next dance!

Pat and Jan Sorgen enjoying a drink!

We say goodbye to the 45th Class of 1965 Reunion!

We don't know how many of you attend your high school reunions.   Maybe you don't for one reason or another, but we have found that reunions are a way for us to reconnect, to reach back and discover new things about old friends, to learn from the past, and to remember the good things about growing up!  We want to thank the organizers of the Kenton High School Class of 65 reunion for making this another memorable backyard adventure for us - one that we will cherish for a long time!

Kasey Update from Grandpa and Grandma!

Kasey is Flying!

It has been awhile since we mentioned our little buddy so we thought we would give our friends and family a peek at our grandson!  Kris and Amy has sent us a few pictures and we really liked this one.  We skype them or they have skyped us on a regular basis so we have managed to keep up with Kasey.  He is getting so big now that he is almost seven months old.  He is eating his veggies and from what we hear he really likes them.

                                                                                                                        

Amy talking, Kasey smiling somethings never change!

On July 16th Kasey becomes an official member of the Cannode clan.  We are sure the kids will have a big blog news event with pictures of the judge and Kasey on this important event in his young life.  There was never a doubt in our minds that he became of a member of our family on December 23, 2009 (the day he was born).  But making it official with the government has taken a few months.  So with very open arms and loving heart we will also "officially" welcome Mr. Kasey Cannode into our family and wish him the very best.  Also, we want to extend to everyone involved in the adoption process a big thank you for all the efforts  they took to bring this Kasey into our lives.

So we encourage you to check out Kris and Amy's blog after July 16th and see Kasey's final adoption process.

THE REASE REUNION

The Eunice (Rease) Lawrence Family Photo

(can you pick out Pat and George)

We made it to the Rease reunion in Columbia, South Carolina.  As always the party starts a couple days before the reunion and this year was no exception.  Most of the out of towners arrived on Friday and the party started upon arrival.  Pat's brothers Charlie and Cloyd pulled their 5th wheels down from Ohio and we drove in on Thursday from Augusta, Georgia.  We all pulled into  their cousin Arthur Wells Rease's 5 acre yard and it looked like a campground sprung up overnight.

Poolside accommodations at Arthur Wells

David accompanied us from Augusta and we drove to Atlanta to pick up Nikki on Friday so the Cannode's were well represented at the gathering of the clans.

Nikki, David, and Pat at Atlanta Airport

The party really starts on Friday night as all the out of towners and most of the 2nd/3rd generation Rease's get together to renew the family bonds over a few drinks and a lot of food.  Melanie and Arthur Wells have been are our gracious hosts for at least the last 10 reunions and this one was the best ever.

 

Party started at Arthur Wells house

Pictured are Pat's nieces - Kendra White (facing camera)and Tami Harris (across table), Nikki (back to camera), Ruby Rease (sitting -Pat's aunt), Charlie, Pam (standing) and Arthur Wells (standing with drink), Pat's aunt Toots in the wheelchair. 

The elder Reases - l to r

Toots, Marie (leaning over), Wilbur, and Betty

(not pictured is Ruby, Arthur's wife and the real hostess of the reunion)

One of many mini get togethers at the reunion

l-r  Tony Harris, "Too Tall" Laura Rease with baby, David (side shot),  Evan Rease (with sunglasses and too tall's husband),

The official reunion was Sunday, June 27th and it was a very hot and muggy day, but we did get a few minutes of respite when a rainstorm passed over the the reunion.  It was immediately followed by hot and humid weather though.  We think it was the best reunion with cousins Wayne Rease cooking pig and chicken, Melanie and Tracy cooking the sides and everyone chipping in to put up the bouncy gym and tent for the enjoyment of all.  These people know how to throw a party --- a great big thank you to Ruby Rease's family, who continue to plan, organized, and put on a wonderful reunion every other year.

After the reunion, we decided to stay an extra couple of days to visit and relax before heading to Atlanta to take David and Nikki to the airport for their flight back to Colorado and for us to drive north to Ohio.   The Ohio trip has some surprises for us but that is the story for the next blog. 

We hope you all are enjoying friends and family this summer.  Our next blog will be posted in a few days because we need to rest from the little bit of work we discovered in Ohio!  Live life to the fullest and than add a little extra to make it special.... 

 

In Charleston, South Carolina w/family

Lib, Wilbur, and Marie

Pat's family reunion is coming up on June 27th but we thought we would get a head start and visit with her aunts and uncles in Charleston.  Her uncle Wilbur was a WWII decorated vet that was wounded at Imo Jimo and has some really good stories of life in the 1940s.  We visited with Wilbur and Aunt Lib yesterday and had a great time talking about family and solving the current world's problems.   Today we were at the Mall in North Charleston and received a phone call from Wilbur who was just outside the Mall.  Lib and Wilbur met up with us in the Mall and Pat asked if they wanted to drive out to Aunt Marie's.  We all headed to her house and again visited for several hours catching up on Marie's family.  We all promised to continue the conversations when we meet again at the Rease reunion.  We are so glad to have this time before the hussle and bussle of the reunion to spend some quality time with the Rease elders.  There never seems to be enough time at reunions to really spend quality time with anyone.
It seems to us that we (all of us) never actually sit down and talk to our mom and dad's generation; get their opinions of what is happening in the world, find out how they grew up and what was important to them - in the past and now.  Maybe that old saying of slowing down and smelling the roses should be applied to stopping for a few minutes and learning about life from those who have the most experince.  We cherished the time  with her aunts and uncles and hope we get to spend more time with them before it is too late for us to enjoy their stories and wisdom - it was a great time!
Suggestion:
If you have a little time we suggest you spend some of it with the generation that made America great.  You might find out that we have lost some of the magic that made this country great and we think that you will have a great time just listening to their stories.  It will also make them feel pretty good, another plus in our opinion.

Good Friends are like Family!

Pat and George in the Motor home

The big news from our genealogy adventure.  We had a breakthrough...we found two more generations of Cannodes, i.e., Knodes.  We again drove down to Annapolis to the Maryland State Archives and by the process of elimination, we discovered that our 5th great grandfather is Conrad Knode and his father is Johannes Heinrich Knode.  We are now back to 1720 and into Hesse, Germany!  We have decided that our next genealogy adventure will be to Europe!  Pat has the Lawrences back to Sir Robert Lawrence @1150 AD in England, but needs to have some real documentation other than the world wide web's documentation.  George needs to go to Germany (near Frankfurt area) to keep this thing going, so it might be worth a month or so in Europe next year.  Stay tuned for that adventure.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

Pat and April at the Motor home

Doug and George relaxing

We have heard it said that good friends are like family.  If that is true, our family is getting bigger.  Doug and April has made our trip to Maryland so enjoyable.  The last couple of days have been like we never left them last year in the mountains of southern Colorado.  We have enjoyed sitting around and talking about our joint adventure last year and catching up with our activities and our families' activities since we departed Cureacanti National Recreation Area last September.  Doug and April are much like all of our friends - our time together is always too short and parting company needs to accompany plans to get together again!  This will not be our last trip to hook up with them, of course unlike our other friends we need to find them - it might be Florida, it might be West Virginia , it might be Maryland, or as April said maybe we will meet up on the road in our collective backyard!  One thing for sure we will stay in touch! Does it get any better than this!  As Doug said, "I wondered what the rich people are doing now", they sure can not be enjoying life anymore than us.

What is next for us?  For the first time in our two years on the road we are not sure.  The next week will find us on the road toward Augusta, Georgia but we "think" we will stop and visit some of the Georgia state parks that we might be camp hosting in next January or February but....we may also just stop and smell the roses as we meander down south!  Whatever we do we will keep you posted so you need to dial into this blog (well you don't NEED to) but if you want to see what we are up to - pull us up and see what our collective backyard looks like from our perspective.

We would again like to thank Doug, not only for our blog picture of the Gunnison River but also for giving us the idea and title of our blog!  Thanks Doug!! 

We again hope that you are enjoying life to the fullest and the next time you are in your backyard, invite your friends.  You will build more memories and over a beer the memories only get better!

Meeting Up with Our Friends

Arriving on our doorstep at Fort Meade

Who would have thought that we would meet up with a new visitor on our doorstep at our Fort Meade campground?  This little squirrel showed up at the motorhome the other night and decided he/she wanted to come in and join us for an evening of enlightened conversation.  We decided it would be better to enjoy his/her company from outside the motorhome.  Our grey squirrel played under the car and motorhome for a long time before tiring of our company and headed off to greener pastures...it was fun while it lasted!!

April and Doug Allmond

We met up with our camphost friends from Blue Mesa today and it was like we have never been apart.  April and Doug are visiting their daughter, Jen, her husband, Rob and their new baby, Andrew in Essex (northeast of Baltimore) and invited us to spend the day with them.  It was an added bonus when Andrew decided to wake up and join us, he is just 6 days old and is a little bundle of joy (sorry no pics).  Doug and April took us out to a crab cake lunch, a first for Pat.  Recommendation:  If you come to Baltimore and Chesapeake Bay you might want to try this local favorite...it was delicious!  What a great day...catching up and reminicing about our summer together as Campground Hosts at the Cureacanti National Recreation Area in southern Colorado.  Doug and April have not changed one little bit...they are happy with life and fun to be around.  One day is not enough so we made plans to get together on Thursday because tomorrow it is back to work for us in
Annapolis.  Our genealogy adventure will not be  finished until we get some concrete answers to our ancesteral questions.

As we close out this edition of our backyard we are reminded that friends are  precious resources.  You will meet a lot of people in your lifetime but only a few of them will become friends - stay in touch and keep them close to your heart and mind! 

Happy Birthday Pat

Fort Mc Henry

What is Baltimore famous for?  Is it Edgar Allen Poe who was born here, or is it the Baltimore Ravens who have gathered more thugs than any other professional football team (yes even more than the Bengals), or...is it Francis Scott Key as he sat on a prisoner exchange ship and wrote the Star Spangle Banner!  We drove up to Fort McHenry to soak up the history.  Another backyard that we recommend people to visit if they are in the area.

Pat standing on the dock at Annapolis

George standing on the dock at Annapolis

Little did we know that Annapolis was just 18 miles from our backyard at Fort Mead.  We drove down to Annapolis on Pat's birthday to checkout Conrad Cannode's will at the Maryland State Archives.  They were closed on Monday's so we resorted to plan B...go have fun!  We had never been to the Naval Academy and thought it would be interesting.  It was built on a very small footprint compared to the Air Force Academy but is it steeped in history!   The area is really beautiful and the setting in historic Annapolis is truly awe inspiring.  Down the street is the revolutionary era state capital building built on the small narrow streets with colonial buildings preserved on every street.  It was like stepping back to the birth of our nation.   Annapolis unlike other cities that have areas with colonial era buildings, it seems the entire city reflects the colonial times.

We decided to go to Red Lobster to celebrate Pat's birthday but...alas the Garmin took us 8 miles to a Red Lobster that closed in 1999!  Plan B again, we had breakfast burritos in the motorhome and went for a walk in our backyard.  It was a perfect ending to the day!  Aren't plan B's wonderful??  We still have to go back to Annapolis to the Maryland State Archives but at least we know they will be open!

We hope your days are filled with Plan B's - it makes life just a little bit more interesting!